So much for Maxxis tires

myredracer wrote:

LarryJM wrote:
It does surprise me that you find towing at less than 65 more tiring than over.

What I was trying to say was not that it's tiring to tow under 65 mph, but it's tiring to have to keep monitoring the speedo and/or GPS to stay at 65 mph and under. When in hilly/mountainous areas, speed is constantly going up and down and it takes constant checking not to exceed 65 mph, plus I'd rather keep my eyes on the road ahead especially in the tight turns and narrow roads. 'Course not an issue in Ca. because max legal towing is 55 mph...

We have Marathons which can be inflated another 10 psi to be able to go 75 mph. Can I therefore just keep them at 75 psi on long road trips? Don't know. We're well under the tire's load rating so if running at 65 psi, am I okay with the occasional spurt up to 75? It's confusing. Is there something different about Marathons that allows higher speed?

With all the reports of blowouts whether statistically significant or not, I don't want a blowout just like everyone else. Besides staying at max. 65 mph, I check the tire pressure (on TV too) before heading off on each leg of a trip, I stay off shoulders at all times, I slow down for potholes, speed bumps and rough roads, etc. Our Marathons are 2 seasons old with 8 - 9K miles (including delivery from Indiana). Still *look* like new. :W Hoping to get lots more service from all 4 of them.

One thing I know that is really hard on any tire is settlement of concrete slabs on interstates from the sudden sharp whap, whap every few feet. I've had 3 passenger car tires have the cords severely damaged on the I-5 in northern Cal. One was only months old and got replaced under warranty and the other two happened on the same trip. IIRC, I was going over the speed limit tho. :R If I encounter anything like that with our TT, I'm going to slow waaay down or get onto another road. I have yet to read on an RV forum about ST blowouts that were or might have been caused by similar sections of concrete interstates or highways and I wonder how many have suffered tire damage from this and never knew and blame it on other causes?

Another thing I've wondered about is that I like towing in mountainous and hilly areas with lots of twists and turns at high speed around the corners (no more than 5-6 mph above the "slow to" speed). Have a really good TV and TT setup that allows this. In stretches with frequent turns at speed, is it hard on the tires and does it cause detrimental heat buildup from maybe tread squirm or sidewall flexing?

At the end of the day, I don't think it matters if you have Maxxis, Chinamaster or any other brand of ST tire, you need to know how to properly take care of them because they are a different animal. Nobody seems to make an effort to educate TT buyers on ST tire care - a dealer, the RV manufacturer, a tire manufacturer/dealer or maybe even your insurance company. Maybe the number of blowouts and failures could be substantially reduced if this were to happen. For ex., discovered recently that friends of ours hadn't checked their ST psi in 1 1/2 yrs and one was down to 50 psi (LRD) - an accident waiting to happen and they didn't know to check or the importance.

IMO you make some very subtle and important points. IMO the three major causes of tire failures are:

1. Excessive speed
2. Under inflation
3. Tire damage due to overloading or road hazards.

This last one is IMO probably the most important and again IMO comes from two not so obvious sources. If one has a flat with most stock sized tires this will cause the other tire on that side to be "SERIOUSLY OVERLOADED" with it being damaged with it's max load carrying capacity seriously compromised. Thus with the normal lack of real excess tire load capacity on stock OEM tires that means unless you replace that apparantly "good" tire you will be running around on a tire most likely "overloaded" all the time and this can result in the catastrophic "blow out" or tread separation scenario at some point down the road. Thus one of my rules is if I have a flat on the trailer "BOTH TIRES" on that side are replaced and will only use that potentially overloaded and compromised tire that did not go flat on the side of the trailer I had a flat on as an emergency spare. Another serious issue IMO is what I called road hazards and outside of the normal "curbing type" issues the poor conditions of a lot of our interstates is "TIRE HADES" due to the "INTERSTATE POTHOLES" mainly in the right side of the right lane. Anyone that has traveled I-95 thru SC and NC know what I'm talking about. Hitting these at interstate speeds over say a couple of hundred miles can IMO basically DESTROY what ever tire load capacity that tire had before you started beating those tires to death. I'm paranoid about this and when I encouter this issue I try and avoid these "Interstate Pothole" like the plague. To do this I'm with in the right lane or straddling the left and right lane only moving over to my normal right lane travel when someone is overtaking me. I have also been known to straddle the right side edge/shoulder in heavier traffic as long as the shoulder is good and clear of debris. All this requires a trememdous amount of extra attention and can really be tiresome and makes a 300 mile day feel like I have driven 1,000 miles.

In fact I have actually replace both tires on the passenger side of my trailer "TWICE" because of either a single or multiple "SERIOUS" "INTERSTATE POTHOLE" encounters in the last 30+ years I have lived on the East Coast. None of these tires went flat or were visibly damaged, but I could not further trust them and the $200 or so IMO was well worth the cost to potentially avoid a real tire failure and the resulting damage to the trailer for any tread separation.

Larry

LarryJM wrote:
It does surprise me that you find towing at less than 65 more tiring than over.

What I was trying to say was not that it's tiring to tow under 65 mph, but it's tiring to have to keep monitoring the speedo and/or GPS to stay at 65 mph and under. When in hilly/mountainous areas, speed is constantly going up and down and it takes constant checking not to exceed 65 mph, plus I'd rather keep my eyes on the road ahead especially in the tight turns and narrow roads. 'Course not an issue in Ca. because max legal towing is 55 mph...

We have Marathons which can be inflated another 10 psi to be able to go 75 mph. Can I therefore just keep them at 75 psi on long road trips? Don't know. We're well under the tire's load rating so if running at 65 psi, am I okay with the occasional spurt up to 75? It's confusing. Is there something different about Marathons that allows higher speed?

With all the reports of blowouts whether statistically significant or not, I don't want a blowout just like everyone else. Besides staying at max. 65 mph, I check the tire pressure (on TV too) before heading off on each leg of a trip, I stay off shoulders at all times, I slow down for potholes, speed bumps and rough roads, etc. Our Marathons are 2 seasons old with 8 - 9K miles (including delivery from Indiana). Still *look* like new. :W Hoping to get lots more service from all 4 of them.

One thing I know that is really hard on any tire is settlement of concrete slabs on interstates from the sudden sharp whap, whap every few feet. I've had 3 passenger car tires have the cords severely damaged on the I-5 in northern Cal. One was only months old and got replaced under warranty and the other two happened on the same trip. IIRC, I was going over the speed limit tho. :R If I encounter anything like that with our TT, I'm going to slow waaay down or get onto another road. I have yet to read on an RV forum about ST blowouts that were or might have been caused by similar sections of concrete interstates or highways and I wonder how many have suffered tire damage from this and never knew and blame it on other causes?

Another thing I've wondered about is that I like towing in mountainous and hilly areas with lots of twists and turns at high speed around the corners (no more than 5-6 mph above the "slow to" speed). Have a really good TV and TT setup that allows this. In stretches with frequent turns at speed, is it hard on the tires and does it cause detrimental heat buildup from maybe tread squirm or sidewall flexing?

At the end of the day, I don't think it matters if you have Maxxis, Chinamaster or any other brand of ST tire, you need to know how to properly take care of them because they are a different animal. Nobody seems to make an effort to educate TT buyers on ST tire care - a dealer, the RV manufacturer, a tire manufacturer/dealer or maybe even your insurance company. Maybe the number of blowouts and failures could be substantially reduced if this were to happen. For ex., discovered recently that friends of ours hadn't checked their ST psi in 1 1/2 yrs and one was down to 50 psi (LRD) - an accident waiting to happen and they didn't know to check or the importance.

myredracer wrote:
Followed a delivery guy from Indiana last week pulling a TT through N. Cal. on a stretch of road that was rather rough in spots and had lots of tight turns. We'd slow down on the rough sections, he didn't. He'd pull away on straight stretches and was doing well above 65 mph. We'd catch him where there was a lot of twists and turns (he had no WDH). I would hazard a guess that many TTs have their tires abused by delivery drivers and out to the west coast, that can be over 2,000 miles. It bothers me that the RV industry sells you a TT with ST tires that are essentially used and may have incurred damage when you take ownership.

Excellent observation and I agree.

I don't understand the 65 mph rating and limitation. Why would the tire industry and regulators do this? 65 mph is so easy to exceed on a freeway and MANY highways in the US. I find myself constantly watching the speedometer and GPS in an effort to drive at max. 65 mph and it is not easy and on a long leg of a trip gets tiring and stressful. Why didn't they come up with a 70 or 75 mph rated ST tire???


I really don't know, but it could have been something set during the NSML of 55 during the 1974 to 1995 time frame along with some studies that might have suggested that towing at speeds in excess of 65mph was significantly less safe, but those are total guesses on my part. However, a few states still limit towing speed considerably less than non towing combos like Ca as an example. It does surprise me that you find towing at less than 65 more tiring than over. My personal experiences having towed from before the NSML till present that 55 to 60/62 is the most comfortable speed. I find towing at speeds much in excess of 62 to 63 much more tiring and requires a lot more attentiveness. If you have a properly capable vehicle you should be able to use the cruise control and at least on the Interstates by staying in the far right "slow" lane fiddling with you speed is a non issue. This 62 to 63 issue was recently reconfirmed when I upgraded my tires and wheels to Al with the Kumho 857s for a period of 20mos and some 6,500mi where I towed 65 to 67. That abruptly came to an end when I had my first tread separation/blow out since the mid 1990's with one of my Kumho tires. Right now since Jan of this year I have a mixture of two Kumhos on one side and two GY Marathons on the other and am back to my previous 58 to 62 max towing speed. Also, in my case my best towing mpg is right at 59mph where I'm turning 2K rpms which is the sweet spot for the 7.3L Ford diesel.

In 3 or 4 years when I plan to replace my current Kumhos, my plans are to give them one more shot and replace the now unavailable 195R14 LRDs with the 205R14 LRDs which will just barely fit my current axle spacing. This will have increased the max load capacity from the original 1760 per tire to my current 2094 (Kumho 195R14s) to 2271 (Kumho 205R14s). In fact for me with having close to 1750lbs load on each tire the 2271 was probably what should have been there as the OEM capacity, but was not. Because of my current tire mix I'm carrying two spares, one GY Marathon and one Kumho so if I have a flat I have a spare for whatever tire currently on the trailer with if needed. My current two spares, one Kumho and one Marathon have each been subjected to being overloaded since they were tires on the same side as when I had the tread separation/blowout in the case of the Kumho in Jan 15 and the Marathon from a simple flat back in Oct 2010. I will probably buy 6 of the 205R14 Kumhos at my next retire and have two as spares to use should one of the 205R14s need to be replaced.

Larry

Followed a delivery guy from Indiana last week pulling a TT through N. Cal. on a stretch of road that was rather rough in spots and had lots of tight turns. We'd slow down on the rough sections, he didn't. He'd pull away on straight stretches and was doing well above 65 mph. We'd catch him where there was a lot of twists and turns (he had no WDH). I would hazard a guess that many TTs have their tires abused by delivery drivers and out to the west coast, that can be over 2,000 miles. It bothers me that the RV industry sells you a TT with ST tires that are essentially used and may have incurred damage when you take ownership.

I don't understand the 65 mph rating and limitation. Why would the tire industry and regulators do this? 65 mph is so easy to exceed on a freeway and MANY highways in the US. I find myself constantly watching the speedometer and GPS in an effort to drive at max. 65 mph and it is not easy and on a long leg of a trip gets tiring and stressful. Why didn't they come up with a 70 or 75 mph rated ST tire???

Good grief! That's extreme. I balance my (cheap) trailer tires - never had one need more than a single weight. IMO, that one is so bad it's defective.

Arcamper wrote:

Clockman wrote:
The BEST trailer tires are Duro's...

Yep, they are great. This is what made me switch to LT's and never look back. My new trailer has LT's from the factory and while its not a travel trailer I do think you will see more of this in the future.

I wouldnt even keep that one as a spare! Whoa batman!

Good lord


Did ya drive on it long enough or were ya trying to go
another 20 miles on it?

Here's my Maxxis tire. Probably go LT next time.

I have learned a lot about proper TT tire care over the years of reading th threads on this forum. I don't believe this is as much of a tire manufacturer debate as it is about proper tire care and making sure you are not overloading the tire. I'm not a tire expert by any stretch. I learned the hard way about not overspeeding and thus overheating a tire. On an old viking pop-up when in a hurry i was running 70mph on a road that was just ground down to be resurfaced. The right side blew but thankfully didn't do major damage. I didn't have a spare with me and learned another lesson the hard way.

I run Hercules power str's, radials in load range D which is more than i need for my rig weight wise but i like the added margin. I air them up to the 65psi max before leaving on a trip, i keep them covered, and i run 60 on the highway, and I'm very careful not to curb them.

Even with all that i could still have a failure. Any mass produced item can have an issue. I do agree lt tires are better quality. But what i have works for me for now. At least I've graduated from bias - ply.

Just my .02

I recently had two Maxxis tires suffer tread separation. In April 2015 I purchased a used 2004 Hybird TT as a handyman special. At that time I looked at the tires and they appeared to look like new. And when checking the date on the tires I misread the date. On Aug 23, this year I drove about 80 miles to the campground and when I arrived I noticed that the front roadside tire started to separate. I replaced it with the spare and it was then that I noticed that the tire had a Mfg date of 1803. The tire was over 12 years old. I towed the TT back home and then on 9/11/15 I made another trip to the campground and again after I arrived I noticed that the rear roadside tire had suffered tread separation. I had another spare along. I replaced the tire but this time I felt I should not tow the TT back home. I placed the TT at a local storage place. After arriving home I ordered 5 New Maxxis 185 80R 13 tires. Looking back I know I should have replaced the tires when I purchased it. However I made a bad assumption and only looked at the tires and misread the date on the tire.
However my feelings toward Maxxis tires is even due to the 12+ year age of the tire they held up and didn't do any damage to the TT.
The original tires were well past their useful life. They showed no signs of cracking. Also the original tires were Made in China The new tires are marked Made In Thailand. Not looking to get 12 years from this set but I feel very comfortable that I will get at least 6 years from them